The invention relates to a die press assembly comprising a lower clamp for clamping and holding a lower punch, a die clamp for clamping and holding a die and a core pin clamp for clamping and holding a core pin, especially for powder die pressing of carbide steel inserts for metal cutting tools.
Inserts for steel cutting are made by powder die pressing from carbide steel powder. These inserts have a central hole for mounting the insert in the free end of the cutting tool. Powder pressing of such inserts requires very accurate guiding of the upper and lower pressing punches with respect to the die. On the powder pressing work station the die and the guided punches have to be exchanged for each size of the insert. In order to have as little as possible pieces of the same size of an insert on stock, the die and the punches have to be exchanged frequently. Production batch times can only be reduced by automatic changing of the die and the punch tools.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,494 there is disclosed a press adapter system for standardizing the use of a die. The system comprises among other parts a punch holder and a die holder between a movable upper ram and a stationary lower press bed, where the punch holder and the die holder can be coupled together by three handles that have to be swung manually some 90° between a coupled and an uncoupled position and thereafter have to be fixed by screwing. In the coupled position the punch holder and the die holder can be transported outside from the die press while maintained in the open state.
Departing from this prior art it is an object of the invention to specify a die press assembly that can be handled and exchanged fast and easily by a robot gripper 21 or a manipulator. The handling and exchanging should be done automatically without manual intervention. The handling and exchanging of various existing types of die press assemblies should be done by one type of robot gripper 21 only.